As a result, Muslims of the Abbasid period quickly set about recovering the scientific and philosophical works of the classical past—lying neglected in the libraries of Byzantium—and translating them into Arabic. The task was herculean and complicated by the fact that texts of the classical period could not be translated directly from Greek into Arabic. Rather, they had first to be rendered in Syriac, the language with which Christian translators were most familiar, and then translated into Arabic by native speakers.
This circuitous route was made necessary by the fact that Christian communities, whose language was Syriac, tended to know Greek, whereas Muslims generally found it easier to learn Syriac, which is closer to Arabic. A doctor and patient discuss vitrified lead poisoning on this page from the Materia Medica of Dioscorides. The Greek work, from the first century BC, was translated into Arabic in the ninth century; this is a 13th-century copy made in Iraq.
The translation effort began in earnest under the reign of the second Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur He sent emissaries to the Byzantine emperor requesting mathematical texts and received in response a copy of Euclid's Elements. This single gift, more than any other perhaps, ignited a passion for learning that was to last throughout the golden age of Islam and beyond. The effort was subsequently systematized under al-Ma'mun, who founded an institution expressly for the purpose, called the Bait al-Hikmah or House of Wisdom, which was staffed with salaried Muslim and Christian scholars.
The output of the House of Wisdom over the centuries was prodigious, encompassing as it did nearly the entire corpus of the Greek scientific and philosophical thought. Not only Euclid but Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates, and Archimedes were among the authors to receive early treatment. It would be wrong to suggest that the scholars of the House of Wisdom were occupied with task of translation only. Muslim scholars generally were concerned to understand, codify, correct, and, most importantly, assimilate the learning of the ancients to the conceptual framework of Islam.
The greatest of these scholars were original and systematic thinkers of the first order, like the great Arab philosopher al-Farabi who died in His Catalog of Sciences had a tremendous effect on the curricula of medieval universities. Perhaps the most distinctive and noteworthy contributions occurred in the field of mathematics, where scholars from the House of Wisdom played a critical role in fusing the Indian and classical traditions, thus inaugurating the great age of Islamic mathematical speculation.
The first great advance consisted in the introduction of Arabic numerals—which, as far as can be determined, were Indian in origin.
They embody the "place-value" theory, which permits numbers to be expressed by nine figures plus zero. This development not only simplified calculation but paved the way for the development of an entirely new branch of mathematics, algebra. The study of geometry was sustained by a remarkable series of scholars, the Banu Musa or "Sons of Musa," who were all, quite literally, sons of the al-Ma'mun's court astronomer, Musa ibn Shakir.
Their activities were all the more noteworthy because they carried on their research and writing as private citizens, devoting their lives and expending their fortunes in the pursuit of knowledge.
Not only did they sponsor the translation of numerous Greek works but contributed substantial works of their own. Al-Hasan, one of the sons, was perhaps the foremost geometrician of his time, translating six books of the Elements and working out the remainder of the proofs on his own.
In addition to mathematics and geometry, Abbasid scholars in the House of Wisdom made important and lasting contributions in astronomy, ethics, mechanics, music, medicine, physics, and philosophy to name a few. In the process men of enormous intellect and productivity rose to prominence.
One of these was Thabit ibn Qurra. Recruited from the provinces—where he had worked in obscurity as a money changer—he came to the Bait al-Hikmah to work as a translator. There his exemplary grasp of Syriac, Creek, and Arabic made him invaluable.
In addition to his translations of key works, such as Archimedes' Measurement of the Circle later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century , he also wrote over 70 original works on a wide range of subjects. His sons, too, were to found a dynasty of scholars that lasted until the 10th century. But it wasn't only the pure or abstract sciences that received emphasis in these early years.
The practical and technical arts made advances as well, medicine the first among them. Here several great scholars deserve mention. Hunain ibn lshaq not only translated the entire canon of Greek medical works into Arabic—including the Hippocratic oath, obligatory for doctors then as now—but wrote 29 works by his own pen, the most important a collection of ten essays on ophthalmology.
The greatest of the 9th century physician-philosophers was perhaps Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known to the west as Rhazes. He wrote over books and was an early advocate of experiment and observation in science. Simultaneously, in far off Spain al-Andalus , the social and natural sciences were being advanced by men such as Ibn Khaldun, the first historian to explicate the laws governing the rise and fall of civilizations. The brilliant flowering of Islamic science in Andalusia was directly stimulated by the renaissance in Baghdad.
Scholars regularly traveled the length of the known world to sit and learn at the feet of a renowned teacher. With the death of the philosopher al-Farabi in the first and most brilliant period of Islamic scientific thought drew to a close. As the political empire fragmented over the next years, leadership would pass to the provinces, principally Khorasan and Andalusia.
Indeed, Spain was to serve as a conduit through which the learning of the ancient world, augmented and transformed by the Islamic experience, was to pass to medieval Europe and the modern world. At the very time that Baghdad fell to the Mongols in , and the Abbasid caliphate came to an end, scribes in Europe were preserving the Muslim scientific tradition.
This is why, just as many Greek texts now survive only in Arabic dress, many Arabic scientific works only survive in Latin. The death of al-Farabi is perhaps a fitting event to mark the end of the golden age of Muslim science. His masterwork, The Perfect City, exemplifies the extent to which Greek culture and science had been successfully and productively assimilated and then impressed with the indelible stamp of Islam.
The perfect city, in al-Farabi's view, is founded on moral and ethical principles; from these flow its perfect shape and physical infrastructure. Undoubtedly he had in mind the round city of Baghdad, The City of Peace. Because Arabs historically had a tradition of trade and commerce, the Muslims continued that tradition. It was due to their superiority in navigation, shipbuilding, astronomy, and scientific measuring devices that Arab and Muslim commerce and trade developed and reached so many peoples throughout the world.
The Arabs were at the crossroads of the ancient trade routes from the Mediterranean, the Gulf, East Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, all the way to China. One of the interesting results of these trading relations occurred during the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid when he exchanged envoys and gifts with Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor.
As a result, Harun al-Rashid established the Christian Pilgrims' Inn in Jerusalem, fulfilling Umar's pledge to Bishop Sophronious, when he first entered Jerusalem, to allow freedom of religion and access to Jerusalem to Christian religious pilgrims.
A number of Arabic words relating to the trade and commerce have found their way into modern Western languages. See list of words. Muslin cotton developed in Mosul Iraq became a favorite commodity and a new word in the Western vocabulary, as did damask fabric from Damascus , fustain cloth from Fustat, Egypt.
The most interesting accounts of other cultures encountered by Arab Muslims are contained in a book on the travels of Ibn Battutah of Tangier , who over a period of 25 years traveled to Asia Minor, Mongolia, Russia, China, the Maldives, Southeast Asia and Africa and recounted his travels and the influence of early Muslim traders in those regions. He was the precursor of Marco Polo, whose accounts contained detailed descriptions of various cultures with which Arab and Muslims traders had long been in contact.
Islamic craftsmanship in bookmaking and bookbinding were items of trade which carried the message of Islamic civilization far and wide. The word "Arabesque" entered into the Western lexicon as a description of the intricate design that characterized Arab Muslim art. But the great mosques that were first built throughout the Islamic world were not only places of worship but places of learning which remained as great examples of architecture and design.
Through them civilization was transmitted in an artistic environment that was at once intellectually inspiring and emotionally uplifting. In addition to distinctive architectural characteristics, such as magnificent geometric designs, many of these contain mosaics of rare beauty, frequently painted in the blue and green of the sea, sky, and vegetation.
The wood carving masharabiyah in most mosques are equally distinctive and characteristic of Islamic art. At times of prayer, individuals and congregations—indeed the entire Muslim world—face Mecca. The mosque is usually a domed structure with one or more minarets from which the muadhin gives the call to prayer five times a day.
The direction of Mecca is clearly indicated by the mihrab, a decorated niche in the wall. The larger mosques have a minbar or pulpit. Since the worshipers should be in a pure state of mind and body before they begin to pray, a fountain is placed in the courtyard for ritual ablutions.
Shoes are removed on entering the prayer hall, which is usually carpeted. For Muslims the mosque is a place for worship and education, a refuge from the cares of the world. Its function is best described in the Prophet's own words, namely that the mosque should be a garden of paradise. Islam's greatest architect was Sinan, a 16th century Ottoman builder who was responsible for the Sulaimaniye mosque in Istanbul. His mosques visibly display the discipline, might, and splendor of Islam.
The technique of dome construction was perfected and passed on to the West. The technique of dome structural support was used in the Capella Palatine in Palermo , while the campaniles or steeples of the Palazza Vecchio of Florence and of San Marco in Venice are inspired by the minaret which was first built in Qairawan, Tunisia Evans Brothers, Ltd. London Insoll, T. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. Levtzion, N. Mones, H. Elfasi, ed. According to a nineteenth-century account, it took four months to travel from west to east and two months to travel from north to south.
The caliphate was organised as a decentralised state seeking to establish Islamic law over its large territory. The jihad and caliphate officially ended with the British conquest, but has since been widely studied and its legacy endures today, especially in Nigeria. Many observers have tried to understand the jihad, the caliphate and especially the figure of Usman dan Fodio. The jihad, itself at the origin of a rich Islamic scholarship, has now given place to a wide and varied literature.
For dan Fodio, the main reason for the jihad was the purification of Islam in territories which were already Muslim at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The legitimacy of his struggle stemmed from his belief that, until this point, Muslim leaders had only practiced an impure form of Islam. As a champion of the people, dan Fodio launched his fight against the king and the aristocracy of Gobir in Even if the social dimension of the jihad should not be totally neglected, dan Fodio himself declared mainly religious reasons to be at the origin of the jihad in Kitab al-Farq.
Correspondence exchanged with the leader of Borno in the s is here revealing. After attempting to invade the kingdom that had existed since the ninth century, dan Fodio tried to convince Mohammed el-Kanemi of the religious and legal merits of his struggle. For dan Fodio, the jihad was mainly but not only conceived as a way of reforming lax Muslims by pure Muslims.
In the s, some historians stressed an ethnic dimension in the jihad of Sokoto. According to this interpretation, dan Fodio was the descendant of Fulanis installed in Hausa regions since the fifteenth century, and would have pitted Islam against Hausas. However, even if most leaders of the Sokoto jihad were Fulani, it is difficult to argue that the numerically inferior Fulani would have believed that they could have overthrown the Hausa kings on exclusively ethnic grounds.
Dan Fodio himself wrote against any ethnic discrimination in his treatise Bayan Wayan Wujub al-Hijra. Scholars have also tried to show to what extent the jihad was not totally new in West Africa. Indeed discussions on the place of Islam in society had already taken place before the jihad of dan Fodio whether it was about food bans, marriage laws or clothes that women had to wear.
It was this last point that had attracted the attention of Shaikh Jibril b. In other words, some Muslim scholars had already become reformers-conquerors before the advent of Usman dan Fodio.
The religious questioning of the jihad of dan Fodio was therefore not completely original. It is his lasting political victory over a vast territory that ensured his long-term success. The first six years of jihad were fundamental in the creation of a political and religious foundation for a state that was never an empire, but a collection of territories under the authority of the caliph in Sokoto.
Indeed the Caliphate of Sokoto was a highly decentralised state ruled by the Caliph. The Caliphate itself was a novel phenomenon in the Hausa regions and conferred moral and political authority on dan Fodio and his successors. Companions of the caliph, Fulani scholars who had become jihadists, were thus placed as emirs at the head of each territorial subdivision who answered directly to the caliph.
Because of its size, the caliphate became divided between the western emirates under the authority of Sokoto and the eastern emirates which remained more or less autonomous. The different successors of dan Fodio had to carry out military campaigns to assert their authority, thus making jihad a virtually uninterrupted phenomenon until the mid-nineteenth century.
It thus became necessary to ensure the security of the caliphate at its borders but also in the buffer zones between each emirate. Thanks to soldiers recruited during the dry season, the troops of Sokoto could quash any rebellion or Tuareg incursion from the north.
In replacing the taxes of the Hausa leaders by Islamic taxes like the zakat , revenues of the Caliphate were in theory subject to Islamic law. However, these taxes depended largely on each emirate with, for example, the existence of a property tax in Kano or Zaria outside of the emirate of Sokoto.
The caliphate of Sokoto, faithful to the original intentions of the jihad, looked to establish Islamic law in the courts of the whole caliphate. The need for educated men encouraged the emergence of schools in urban centres, even though the first years of the Caliphate were marked by a shortage of qualified personnel.
Indeed, a defining feature of the Caliphate of Sokoto was the literate staff working in the administration of each emirate. Born free or in slavery, these men formed part of a functioning bureaucracy. It was once again the lack of labour which provoked the numerous expeditions with the aim of capturing slaves to either sell or to make work in the plantations and other places of production of the caliphate. Thus, work in the salt mines of the north of the caliphate was based on slave labour.
The same applied to the iron, cotton, indigo, or leather industries of the central regions of the caliphate. The wealth of the state was therefore based on a servile economy fuelled by wars or raids.
North African merchants provided a number of slaves in the town of Kano of the s: for every freeman there were thirty slaves in the city. Whether through the pilgrimage to Mecca, trade or the dissemination of brotherhoods, the Hausa regions became more and more integrated with the Muslim world.
While the phenomenon of integration within the Muslim world may have existed before, the jihad greatly accelerated the process. Following a brief British military campaign, the Sokoto Caliphate was incorporated into the protectorate of northern Nigeria in This date marks the defeat of the Sokoto Sultan against the British armies and the beginning of the colonial period.
The British troops, as in was often the case in Africa, were essentially composed of Africans with European officers at their head. Involving predominantly Hausa soldiers, the British conquest might therefore also be understood as the result of an internal war in the Sokoto caliphate.
Nevertheless, the Caliphate did not quite disappear entirely in , as the British used the Sokoto Caliphate to build upon their theory of Indirect Rule. Last roots the term in the title assumed by Mohammed Bello and his successors.
As amir al-Muminin , the sultan of Sokoto was the de facto caliph; a title that was also used by the rulers of neighbouring Borno between the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Kanya-Forstner, Alexander, and Paul E.
Athens: Ohio University Press, Before we examine his eventful life, we might as well start our discussion with his swift jihads in present day Mali and Guinea Conakry which lasted from His first target was the gold states of Bambuk and Bure then ruled by and inhabited by animist Malinke.
Within a short period of six years between , he conquered and forcibly converted the Malinke of Bandjogou, Bougary and Farabana all in present day Republic of Guinea Conakry. He raised the flag of Tijaninya sect of Islam and pitched his tent at Jalafara, his first capital. He had brought the only well organized fighting force in this part of the Sahel, the Bambara, into submission under his Tijaniya sect. But this success was apparent even in his early year. In the same year, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and stayed in Arabia for 13 years, and was ordained the Kalifa or emissary of the Tijaniya sect in West Africa.
He had now gotten the recognition and stamp of approval to lead the jihads in the Sahel. He briefly passed through Kanem Borno, Sokoto where jihads had just been completed and must have learnt some lessons on how to prepare his own in the Sahel. He was quick to free slaves for example in conquered territories and assisted the poor and down trodden to meet their basic needs. Until he met his demise at Dinguiray in after a bloody encounter with the French, he remained the popular jihadist turned empire builder.
His son Amadou Seku replaced him but struggled to wield together the vast Imamate his father had wrought. Harrison, Christopher. France and Islam in West Africa, Cambridge University Press, Launay, Robert, and Benjamin F.
Hill, Margari. Parrinder, Edward G. Sanneh, Lamin O. Skip to content Please click this link to download the chapter. The Nature of Islam The nature of Islam as a religion accepting polygamy to some extent, its tolerance of traditional African religions, its simplicity of doctrine and mode of worship helped propagators to make converts in Africa. Trade Another major reason that led to the rapid spread of Islam in West Africa was the trans-Saharan trade network.
Activities of Muslim Clerics Islam also spread into West Africa through the activities of Muslim clerics, marabouts and scholars or mallams. Activities of Rulers Islam gained ground in West Africa through the activities of the individual rulers. Holy War What is more, another way in which Islam was introduced and spread in West Africa in general and the Western Sudan in particular was the militant jihad, or the waging of holy war against infidels or lukewarm Muslims.
Inter-marriage Islam also spread on to West Africa through inter-marriages. Scholars The early Muslim missionaries opened Islamic schools and colleges. Unity Islam cut across family, clan and ethnic ties and loyalties and emphasized unity and brotherhood. System of Administration Most of the Muslim rulers of Western Sudan adopted the Muslim systems of justice and taxation.
Army The hajj brought pilgrims into contact with technology and scholarship at the centre of the Muslim world, which were often adopted and introduced when the pilgrims returned home. Pilgrimage to Mecca. The Pillar of Islam There was the replacement of the worship of false gods in some areas. Literacy Islam introduced literacy as well as Muslim education into West Africa. Establishment of Schools As Islam continued to spread in West Africa, schools and educational centres were established in large towns and cities in Western Sudan.
Change in Culture There was also the change in cultural life as a result of the introduction of Islam in West Africa. Architecture Islam helped in the introduction of burnt brick for example, Ibrahim As-Sahil designed a magnificent brick mosque in Gao, Timbuctu and a stone palace in Mali for Mansa Musa. Trade Islam promoted trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean. Author Denis Genequand. Read Open Access. Freemium Recommend to your library for acquisition.
Buy Print version Place des libraires leslibraires. Atlas of Jordan History, Territories and Society. ISBN: Genequand, D. In Ababsa, M. Genequand, Denis. Ababsa, Myriam. Atlas of Jordan: History, Territories and Society.
New edition [online]. Ababsa, M. Ababsa, Myriam, ed. Size: small x px Medium x px Large x px. Catalogue Author s Publishers Selections Excerpts. In All OpenEdition.
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